The phrase "abstract definition" is correct and usable in written English.
It can be used when discussing a conceptual or theoretical explanation of a term or idea, often in academic or philosophical contexts.
Example: "In philosophy, an abstract definition of justice may differ significantly from its practical application in law."
Alternatives: "theoretical definition" or "conceptual definition".
This abstract definition is necessarily broad and does not reckon with the complexity of individual cases.
"The easiest way to talk about" rape culture, Ariel Levy says on this week's Political Scene podcast, "is in action as opposed to in abstract definition.
These new concepts are moving the gene away from a physical snippet of DNA and back to a more abstract definition.
I suspect that Wittgenstein would have loved this research: it confirms his belief that the meaning of a word is not to be found in some abstract definition, but in its use in everyday language.
By Matthew McKnight August 1, 2013 "The easiest way to talk about" rape culture, Ariel Levy says on this week's Political Scene podcast, "is in action as opposed to in abstract definition.
These subcortical regions of our brain that are activated by our love responses are also involved in the areas of our brain that define our abstract definition of self.
Overly abstract definitions are often helpful only if you come to them already primed by context.
The Treasury's accommodation of the needs of British Muslims for mortgages is a salutary reminder that an imaginative and sensitive response to a real practical problem can sometimes yield more promising results than abstract definitions of multi-culturalism and citizenship.
The first procedure attenuates meaningful images to abstract definitions, the second leads from abstract definitions by way of reasoning to the reproduction of the concrete situation".
Developing operational, abstract definitions of principles is often a different task than developing practical, contextually bound implementation of the concepts (Vygotsky 1986).
In the 2012 Academic Integrity Course combining both a student's face and voice allowed abstract definitions to be made more visually memorable (see Fig. 5).
